Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

1/11/2018

SYNOPSIS

She will become one of the world's greatest heroes: WONDER WOMAN. But first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. And her fight is just beginning. . . .

Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law—risking exile—to save a mere mortal. Even worse, Alia Keralis is no ordinary girl and with this single brave act, Diana may have doomed the world.

Alia just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn't know she is being hunted. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer—a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery.

Together, Diana and Alia will face an army of enemies—mortal and divine—determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. If they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.

Synopsis from Chapters.Indigo.ca

PERSONAL REVIEW

I’ve been a comic book fan for years, and was incredibly excited when I found out that DC comics was asking four YA authors to write origins novels for specific hero’s. AND THEN I found out who those authors are, including none other then Leigh Bardugo, one of my favourite authors...my excitement was at a high! I did read this book last year and gave a simple review of it on Goodreads, but with Marie Lu’s Batman just out, I realized that I really wanted to write a full review of Wonder Woman: Warbringer. So here it is!

What I Liked:

Strong Female Characters (of course!): It would’ve been incredibly disappointing to read a book about Wonder Woman and not have any stronger female characters. But Bardugo knocked it out of the park; not only is Diana physically strong, but she has a strong emotional understanding and builds real relationships with the other characters. This is not a princess who swoops in to save the day but stays separate from the humans; this is the story of a teenager with incredible physical and emotional strength who both saves the day and leaves us wondering when she’ll come back to the “world of man” again.

Besides Diana, the other woman in the novel are just as strong, from other Amazons to the teenage girls she befriends. I loved Alia and Nim because they both jump into the fray with little hesitation and hold their own in a fight where they are dramatically outnumbered. All these characters felt incredibly honest and real and I loved reading about them.
Excellent Storytelling: Bardugo made a great choice in changing POVs throughout the novel. I loved getting to see Diana from the point of view of Alia, and of course seeing the world from Diana’s POV was amazing. It definitely added a lot to the story that otherwise might have fallen a bit flat if we only had Diana’s biased observation of the world. Giving Alia the chance to speak allowed readers to get a fuller view of the events in the book and grounded us in reality, instead of simply reading from Diana’s POV. As fun as it is to read about what our world looks like to her, it definitely would’ve slowed the story down if Bardugo had to explain every single thing (how airplanes work, cars, etc) to us. Alia's POV also allowed us to read about the strong friendship developing between her and Diana, again grounding Diana and giving her a reason to eventually come back to the "world of man" in the future.

A Surprising Villain Twist: In most recent origin stories, Diana's first battle revolves around stopping Ares, who may be her brother or father depending on the storyline, and keeps everything very mythological. In Bardugo's story, the villain actually comes as a surprise and is (pretty much) a human, and not a full-fledged god. Although we take a dip into mythology (I don't think it's possible to tell a Wonder Woman story properly without going into Greek myths), it feels like a very natural transition. One of my favourite conversations sums up this relationship between mythology and this new story of Diana:

- (no spoilers): "This is all wrong. Achilles, Hercules, they won. In all the stories, they best the Amazons. They are the victors."
- Diana: "Those are the stories your poets tell, not mine."

BOOM! I love this moment because the villain (no spoilers) is basing his actions on the stories that he goes from mythology, but Diana reminds him that those are just the stories that men had told themselves. The truth of the Amazons is different and she is a new hero in a new role and the stories of the past do not affect her.

I honestly adored the way Bardugo built this new Wonder Woman world and would love to see more of it in the future. I'm pretty much these are meant to be stand-alone's, but I would love to read more if she was allowed to build a series around Diana; to see Wonder Woman join the human world again, to get to see more of Alia, Nim, and Theo...well, it would be amazing.

For anyone who enjoys comics, the story of Wonder Woman, or just wants to read about strong female characters, this is a great book and one I would highly recommend.

FINAL RATING: 5/5